/*
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS HEADER.
 *
 * Copyright 1997-2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  Portions Copyrighted 2008 Richard Schilling.
 *
 * The contents of this file are subject to the terms of either the GNU
 * General Public License Version 2 only ("GPL") or the Common Development
 * and Distribution License("CDDL") (collectively, the "License").  You
 * may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain
 * a copy of the License at https://glassfish.dev.java.net/public/CDDL+GPL.html
 * or glassfish/bootstrap/legal/LICENSE.txt.  See the License for the specific
 * language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
 *
 * When distributing the software, include this License Header Notice in each
 * file and include the License file at glassfish/bootstrap/legal/LICENSE.txt.
 * Sun designates this particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception
 * as provided by Sun in the GPL Version 2 section of the License file that
 * accompanied this code.  If applicable, add the following below the License
 * Header, with the fields enclosed by brackets [] replaced by your own
 * identifying information: "Portions Copyrighted [year]
 * [name of copyright owner]"
 *
 * Contributor(s): Richard Schilling (coderroadie@gmail.com)
 *
 * If you wish your version of this file to be governed by only the CDDL or
 * only the GPL Version 2, indicate your decision by adding "[Contributor]
 * elects to include this software in this distribution under the [CDDL or GPL
 * Version 2] license."  If you don't indicate a single choice of license, a
 * recipient has the option to distribute your version of this file under
 * either the CDDL, the GPL Version 2 or to extend the choice of license to
 * its licensees as provided above.  However, if you add GPL Version 2 code
 * and therefore, elected the GPL Version 2 license, then the option applies
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 */

package javax.mail.search;

import java.io.Serializable;

import javax.mail.Message;

/**
 * Search criteria are expressed as a tree of search-terms, forming
 * a parse-tree for the search expression.
 * <p>
 * Search-terms are represented by this class. This is an abstract class;
 * subclasses implement specific match methods.
 * <p>
 * Search terms are serializable, which allows storing a search term between
 * sessions. <strong>Warning:</strong> Serialized objects of this class may not
 * be compatible with future JavaMail API releases. The current serialization
 * support is appropriate for short term storage.
 * <p>
 * <strong>Warning:</strong> Search terms that include references to objects of
 * type <code>Message.RecipientType</code> will not be deserialized correctly on
 * JDK 1.1 systems. While these objects will be deserialized without throwing
 * any exceptions, the resulting objects violate the <i>type-safe enum</i>
 * contract of the <code>Message.RecipientType</code> class. Proper
 * deserialization of these objects depends on support for the
 * <code>readReplace</code> method, added in JDK 1.2.
 * 
 * @author Bill Shannon
 * @author John Mani
 */
public abstract class SearchTerm implements Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = -6652358452205992789L;

    /**
     * This method applies a specific match criterion to the given
     * message and returns the result.
     * 
     * @param msg The match criterion is applied on this message
     * @return true, it the match succeeds, false if the match fails
     */

    public abstract boolean match(Message msg);
}
